13ADM008-2014-Commencement-Program
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valencia college commencement May 3, 2014 Valencia College forty-fifth annual Commencement May 3, 2014 VALENCIA COLLEGE DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES Maria Grulich Chair Lewis M. Oliver, III Vice Chair Lucas Boyce Daisy Lopez-Cid Bruce Carlson Raymer Maguire, III John Crossman Fernando Perez Guillermo Hansen Commencement marks a great achievement for all who are graduating. We ask that you honor these graduates and ensure that everyone can hear by remaining quiet throughout the entire ceremony and silencing all cell phones. Your cooperation is appreciated. Graduates are recognized in order of seating arrangement rather than alphabetical order. Please note that there is a few seconds delay between the announcement of a graduate’s name and his or her appearance on the video screen. Leaving a Legacy – Class of 2014 Support future students by making a donation to the Valencia Graduating Class Gift 2014. For details and to donate online, visit valenciacollege.edu/alumni/classgift. Find photos and video* from today’s event at: Share your own photos: tagboard.com/valenciagrad #valenciagrad flickr.com/photos/myvalencia facebook.com/valenciacollege twitter.com/valenciacollege youtube.com/valenciacollege *Note: Video of ceremony available May 12. VALENCIA COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT PROGRAM Presiding Dr. Sanford C. Shugart, President Special Music Selections ........................................ Valencia Brass Ensemble Mr. Jon Territo, Director Processional Pomp and Circumstance .................................................... Elgar *Welcome and Pledge of Allegiance .................................Dr. Sanford C. Shugart Commendation from District Board of Trustees. Ms. Maria Grulich Chair, District Board of Trustees Introduction of Platform Guests and Senior Staff ........................Dr. Kathleen Plinske Campus President, Osceola and Lake Nona Campuses Recognition of Faculty and Staff .....................................Dr. Kathleen Plinske Recognition of Baccalaureate Graduates ............................... Dr. Falecia Williams Campus President, West Campus Recognition of Honors Graduates .......................................Dr. Valerie Burks Director, Honors Program Awarding of the Bachelor’s Scholarship .................................. Dr. Susan Ledlow Vice President, Academic Affairs and Planning Recognition of Alumni Association Mary Smedley Collier Distinguished Graduate ............................Ms. Shardeh Berry President, Valencia Alumni Association Commencement Address .............................................Mr. Angel Sanchez 2013-2014 Distinguished Graduate Presentation of Graduates ........................................Dr. Sanford C. Shugart Conferring of Degrees ...........................................Dr. Sanford C. Shugart Ms. Maria Grulich, Chair Ms. Daisy Lopez-Cid, Trustee Mr. Lewis Oliver, III, Vice Chair Mr. Fernando Perez, Trustee Mr. Lucas Boyce, Trustee Mr. Carl E. Creasman Jr., President, Mr. Bruce Carlson, Trustee Collegewide Faculty Association Mr. John Crossman, Trustee Mr. Richard Sansone, Professor Mr. Guillermo Hansen, Trustee Ms. Shawn Pollgreen, Professor Closing Remarks .................................................. Dr. Stacey Johnson Campus President, East and Winter Park Campuses **Recessional ........................................................2014 Graduates Roar. Katy Perry Viva la Vida ..........................................................Cold Play Glad You Came .....................................................The Wanted * The audience stands. ** The audience is requested to remain seated until the graduate and faculty recessional has left the arena. 1 A MESSAGE FROM THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION May 3, 2014 Dear Valencia Graduate: Today, we celebrate you and your actualization of the Valencia dream. On behalf of the Valencia College Alumni Association, we congratulate you on a significant milestone in your educational pursuit – your graduation. We commend you for your academic, co- curricular, and personal achievements while attending Valencia College. As a graduate of Valencia College, you should find great pride that you have received an education from one of the finest educational institutions in the nation and the inaugural winner of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. ZIA-UR-REHMAN Today, you are taking the next step in your Valencia journey by joining over 100,000 ANSARI alumni from across the world as you continue your life’s pursuits and reach other achievements. We invite you to keep the relationship you have established with Valencia alive by being active with the Valencia College Alumni Association. Maintaining this unique bond with our alumni, like you and me, has been what Valencia honors and cherishes most. Through your continued involvement in Alumni Association programs and activities, you will not only be able to give back to the college but also to be a part of its future. Thanks to the community and our alumni membership, we continue to create and strengthen many wonderful and diverse opportunities for our students. Through your free membership in the Alumni Association you will benefit by receiving many opportunities such as: information regarding future plans for Valencia, leadership and networking opportunities, national discounts, cultural events, career information, a subscription to Vitae – Valencia’s award-winning alumni magazine – and updates on your former classmates. We wish you the best in all of your future endeavors and look forward to hearing about all of your accomplishments! Again, congratulations to you and to the Class of 2014 graduates who are celebrating their achievements today. Welcome to your new journey and welcome to the Valencia Alumni Association. Yours in scholarship, friendship and service, Zia-ur-Rehman Ansari ’10 Executive Vice President Valencia Alumni Association 2 VALENCIA COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MARY SMEDLEY COLLIER DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE AWARD* Angel Sanchez 2013-2014 DISTINGUISHED GR ADUATE Angel Sanchez keeps a tiny sliver of paper – developed a large contingent of supporters, from a fortune cookie – pasted in his photo friends and faculty members. album. “Don’t be hasty,” it reads, “prosperity will knock on your door soon.” “I like to say that by becoming homeless, I found a home,” says Sanchez. Angel Sanchez embraced that message because it reminds him that his journey is one of many That would have been enough for many. small steps. And from the time he was sent to But it wasn’t enough for Sanchez. prison at age 16, he has been plotting, one step at a time, how to rebuild a life that many people He mentored youngsters at the Coalition for would have deemed hopeless. the Homeless shelter and invited other honors students to join him. On nights when he left Sent to prison at age 16 for gang-related campus late, he often stayed at the downtown violence in Miami, Angel Sanchez served bus station with another student while she 12 years behind bars. waited for her transfer to another bus. And when the wife of Vice President Joe Biden visited And, while many prisoners lift weights and Valencia College last year, Angel stood up – count the days till release, Angel set about and challenged all the nation’s colleges to help reshaping his life. He earned his GED in prison and then took homeless students in the same ways that Valencia had helped him. correspondence courses in paralegal studies. That led to a job in the prison law library, where he helped other prisoners research Now, Angel, 31, is honored to be this year’s Distinguished their appeals. And it was there, in the prison law library, that Graduate. And the young man who once dreamed of becoming he happened to be reading USA Today when he spotted a a paralegal has set his sights higher. two-page spread on USA Today’s All-American Community College Academic Team. As a winner of a Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship – which awards up to $30,000 per year to each of approximately 85 They were all “second-chance people” – people like me, he deserving students selected annually – many doors are now open thought. That, Angel vowed, would be his next goal: To attend to Sanchez. Although he loves Orlando and is applying to UCF’s a community college and make the All-Academic team. Burnett Honors College, he has also applied to Yale University’s Eli Whitney Program, Columbia University and the University After he got released from prison, Angel resisted the urge to return of Chicago. to Miami – where he felt certain he’d fall back into the gang lifestyle. Instead, he boarded a bus to Orlando, the first step in a Prosperity, it appears, is knocking on his door. lonely journey. Here, he didn’t know anyone, but got a cot at the Salvation Army. That was his new home. “I have met many people who were just as bright as me, who worked as hard as me, but who didn’t succeed because they Until he found Valencia College. didn’t meet the right people,” says Sanchez. “I look back and see individuals inside institutions – Valencia, the Salvation Army – Aiming for a degree in paralegal studies, Sanchez quickly made who vouched for me. They tried to change a cookie-cutter system straight As and the President’s List. He landed a work-study job in to make it a system that looks at people, case-by-case.” the financial aid department and, thanks to his grades, was invited to join Valencia’s Seneff Honors College. Before long, Angel Now, he says, “I have an obligation to pay it forward.” *In January 2012, the Alumni Association named this award in honor of Mary Smedley